Where can I find the best Milk Oolong?

Today I tried some Milk Oolong as a sample in Capital Teas in Annapolis MD and absolutely loved the taste. The aftertaste was so creamy and lingered in the best way possible as any good Oolong should. Although the only downside was that it was on the pricey side so I was wondering what your opinions were of where to find it for the best price, thanks!

The best advice I can give you is to sample, sample, and sample some more. If you look on the vendor pages, you can find plenty of sites that sell Milk oolongs. If you like what you see, try for some samples. Good Luck!

Just know there are two types of "milk" oolong. The common ones found most places are from Guangzhou or Taiwan, and they have been actually steamed and flavored with dairy products. These come out tasting as you'd expect- like oolong with a bit of cream and sugar added. There is also a milk oolong which has not been artificially flavored. It's high mountain oolong from Taiwan which is harvested and processed directly after a cold snap in the weather. It doesn't taste like cream, but rather has a creamy and sweet texture and mouthfeel.

If you open the bag of tea, and it smells like sweetened condensed milk, then you know you have the first kind. Nothing wrong with that, but you shouldn't be paying high prices for it. By a strange twist of events, I ended up getting a sample of this kind from David's Tea recently. It's a pleasant enough tea, but can't be put on the same level as good unflavored oolongs. [And for the love of God, don't brew it in a Yixing pot!]

tingjunkie wrote:Just know there are two types of "milk" oolong. The common ones found most places are from Guangzhou or Taiwan, and they have been actually steamed and flavored with dairy products. These come out tasting as you'd expect- like oolong with a bit of cream and sugar added. There is also a milk oolong which has not been artificially flavored. It's high mountain oolong from Taiwan which is harvested and processed directly after a cold snap in the weather. It doesn't taste like cream, but rather has a creamy and sweet texture and mouthfeel.

If you open the bag of tea, and it smells like sweetened condensed milk, then you know you have the first kind. Nothing wrong with that, but you shouldn't be paying high prices for it. By a strange twist of events, I ended up getting a sample of this kind from David's Tea recently. It's a pleasant enough tea, but can't be put on the same level as good unflavored oolongs. [And for the love of God, don't brew it in a Yixing pot!]

I was just about to sample some "milk oolong" from David's. Now I know what I won't be buying.

fire_snake wrote:I was just about to sample some "milk oolong" from David's. Now I know what I won't be buying.

I have no idea how they make the flavoured milk oolong. A rather interesting thing though is that I know a friend of a friend who is lactose intolerant and have tried this milk oolong from David's without problem. Maybe the actual milk doesn't get into the tea? Another strange thing about this tea is that it is listed as a straight rather than flavoured oolong on their catalog.

Interestingly, TeaSpring used to carry the flavored milk oolong (though I'd describe the scent and flavor of their selection to be more like butter than cream). Then, last year, they switched to authentic, unflavored milk oolong.

As others have noted, real milk tea doesn't taste all that much like milk. So, apparently, TeaSpring got complaints from customers that the authentic kind isn't what they were expecting. So I believe TeaSpring is now considering going back to the flavored stuff....

tingjunkie wrote:Sounds like the real deal to me SilentChaos! Any chance the vendor sells online?

Unfortunately not tingjunkie. I got this from a relative living in Taiwan. I'm also drinking a few other oolongs which cost many times more than the Alishan Jin-Xuang, and I reckon the Jin-Xuang is right up there with them, truly amazing. Btw, on the Taiwanese market a top grade Alishan Jin-Xuang costs only about 10 CAD (max 15) per 150g